Supporting our schools is everyone's business - not just for those with kids in school

I'm an involved parent - some might say I'm too involved!

When I first began as a volunteer in my child's school, I was in a partnership mindset and the school was, too. The school principal set that tone and fostered the culture to support it, engaging families and community members in a process that was defined and well-communicated. This isn't the case for all schools.

High quality public education may be the focus of local, state, and national policy, but it's not yet a civil right. There are tremendous disparities in funding, facilities, and instructional resources across our nation's school districts, and this inequity underlies the poor outcomes that the No Child Left Behind law attempts to address.

But, learning happens everywhere: in before-school programs, after-school programs, in school, in pre-kindergarten programs, in community-based programs and faith-based programs. We can think of learning happening across a continuum.

As a result, our schools need everyone's help: parents, family members, community residents, local organizations, and anyone else whom we can engage in children's learning. From early childhood through high school, families make key contributions to student learning.

Family, school, and community partnership is not some "nice to have" - it's a necessity for school improvement and student success.

Collaborating with the community in support of your child's education*

There are many ways to engage in a child's education: at home, at school, and in the community. Here are some ideas for collaborating with community organizations in support of children's learning:

• Make local agencies and businesses aware of what's happening at your child's school.

• Help coordinate and participate in events that support community groups.

• Talk with employers about co-sponsoring parent meetings or parenting workshops on site.

• Encourage employers to adopt flexible work schedules and time off so that employees might attend school functions.

• Help organize and/or participate in community career, art, or health fairs.

• Recruit community members (seniors, business people) to volunteer at school.

• Serve on local community advisory councils and committees.

• Work with local authorities and public officials to sponsor community events.

• Encourage and help facilitate your child's participation in community service.

• Be a role model; be active in community service yourself or together with your child.

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* This refers to any adult who serves a care-giving role in a child's life.

The brain, poverty, and education

In 2006 I attended an Americans for the Arts evening at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. William Safire delivered the Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy. He talked of a three-year study begun by The Dana Foundation to examine whether early arts training by young children can cause changes in the brain that enhance other aspects of cognition. The goal was to find correlation between the two. Safire was chairman of The Dana Foundation at the time. (Results showed plenty of causation but no correlation. Check out the subsequent report about the Learning, Arts, and the Brain (Neuroeducation) Summit).

Anyway, that was when I first heard of The Dana Foundation and their work in neuroeducation. I signed up for their publication, "Brain in the News" - a digest of published studies, articles, commentary, etc. about the brain. (My interest in brain research stems from a college project on the topic involving a halved cauliflower, labeled "Left" and "Right", as a visual aid.)

This summer, "Brain in the News" published a study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Researchers reported a direct correlation between poverty and the brain development of children: poverty hampers the growth of gray matter, impairing their academic performance. Poor children tend to have as much as 10% less gray matter in several areas of the brain associated with academic skills (study published in JAMA Pediatrics).

Now, poverty is no longer "just a social problem".

One of the most challenging and troubling aspects in education and public policy is poverty. President Lyndon Johnson declared "war on poverty" more than 50 years ago and introduced a set of social programs to combat it, including the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1965.

Poverty among children younger than 18 began dropping even before the war on poverty:

• 27.3% in 1959
• 23% in 1964
• 14% by 1969

Since then, however, the childhood poverty rate has risen, fallen, and, since the 2007-08 financial crisis, risen again.

Today, a majority of children in US public schools live in poverty. The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 is a response. Within the law is a "community eligibility provision" which allows districts and schools with high poverty rates (40% or higher) to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students. Breakfast in the classroom, along with summer learning, early learning, and expanded learning time are strategies known to have a positive impact on children in poverty and their learning.

While it's an improvement for students to receive these meals, and in spite of the fact that there is no real change in poverty status, the student low-income data (i.e., free and reduced lunch) used in the foundation budget calculation, in the allocation formulas for other state and federal grant programs, and in our school and district accountability system must transition to other income data sources to determine what it means to be poor in Massachusetts.
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Researchers make 5 recommendations for standardized test designers

Why We Fail to Address the Achievement Gap

Addressing the College Readiness Challenge in High Poverty Schools

Annual Accountability

President Obama on Poverty

The Real 21st-Century Problem in Public Education is Poverty

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday - it's four days long and (most times) I'm able to spend it with my children and extended family.

I'm grateful for family.

Coming when it does - at the end of November, long after the audaciousness of leaves, when most have fallen and what remain on branches are crisped and brown, bronze, and russet - it's a reflective time.

I'm grateful for seasonal change.

There's so much that's scary and challenging in the world right now. And, while many parts of the world have been living this reality for too long, more and more people are waking up every day, committing to changing hearts and minds in communities.

For that, I'm grateful.

I'm sharing the Paul Simon youtube here because I've loved "American Tune" since I first heard it and it's something of a Thanksgiving Day classic in our house. His lyrics capture the heart of America - the impact of each individual, hard work, imperfection and compromise, heartbreak, poverty, struggle, immigration "in the age's most uncertain hour".

I'm grateful for the poets.

"Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - Spanish Dance Troupe", shared with me by a longtime friend and artist in Virginia, is a happy little piece. It reminds me of the Hallowe'en party seven of us went to at that button factory in New Hampshire when we all dressed as the "Finalist Dance Troupe". Great memory - I want to live in this film's landscape because of it.

I'm grateful for faraway friends (and memory) and the abundant technologies available to me that keeps us connected.

And, finally, I'm sharing another song sent by a friend in Nova Scotia - it's Adele singing "Hello", accompanied by Jimmy Fallon and folks from SNL playing classroom (do they mean simple percussion?) instruments.

This joyful expression reminds me how grateful I am for teachers, the availability of public education in the US, and, especially, of the importance of making the arts available to all of our children.

I'm grateful for all of the artists who share their gifts and visions and hopes and dreams.

What are you grateful for?

Family engagement isn't a checklist

I'm a proud parent of three: two sons, now college grads, and a daughter in high school. I became active in their education at school when our first child entered kindergarten (lo those many years ago...) and it's what keeps me engaged during those long Board of Ed meetings each month.

Back when they were little, the family-school partnership inspired and motivated me to contribute my skills as an artist and musician to further the educational goals of students and the school. I was happy to do things other than fundraise. Besides, it was fun connecting with other families and teachers and staff in the process.

Family engagement isn't a checklist; it's about a school's openness to a relationship with all of its families for student success.

More than 40 years of research shows that students with families actively engaged in their education at school and at home do way better at school and in life - and this holds true regardless of a parent's level of education, country of origin, or socioeconomic status.

Modern school culture uses the language of "partnership" to describe the mutual relationship of schools and families to co-construct opportunities for learning. This is intentional, as it acknowledges the child at the center of decisions in schools, families, and communities. It's a statement about the shared responsibility of all who make those decisions and that they're focused on children's development and learning success. This focus impacts student skills, grades and achievement, health and safety, discipline, and other attitudes and behaviors, and includes encouraging students to develop talent in art, sports, music, technology, and other areas.

As the Parent Representative on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, I'm one of 11 voting members appointed to provide oversight of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education by virtue of my parent lens. 

That parent lens isn't only important for some things, it's necessary on all of the issues that have an impact on our children, our schools, and our communities. It's in all children's best interest to have families represented all across and up and down the educational enterprise and, by the time they're in high school, to have students represented, as well.

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Notes, quotes, tweets

I've blogged before about my experience in a global book study with the book, Beyond the Bake Sale: The Essential School Guide to Family-School Partnerships. Some of the parents and educators from that group have gone on to have the book study with parents and educators at their school.

Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.
~ Eleanor Roosevelt

When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.
~ Malala Yousafzai

Being talked about at the dinner table is a "good" thing. Are Your Students Thankful For You? https://t.co/OJeC8zJbmB via @mjanatovich

— Jon Harper ; (@Jonharper70bd) November 24, 2015

Remember I'm-possible!!! pic.twitter.com/Q2roOTwmXB

— Ted Huff (@TedHiff) November 25, 2015

Ideas for partnering with the school to support your child's education

There are many ways to be engaged with a child's education - if you're the adult responsible for the care-giving of a child, you're probably doing some of these things already.

• Learn about school and district policies and practices that affect children.

• Voice your support or concerns on any issue that will affect your family.

• Participate in meetings to determine special educational needs and services.

• Attend workshops on problem-solving, conflict resolution, and public speaking to develop your advocacy skills.

• Encourage and support children to serve in student leadership positions.

• Work with teachers and school administrators to develop a parent involvement policy.

• Learn candidates' position and participate in school committee elections.

• Participate in petition drives or letter-writing campaigns to Congress on legislation affecting public schools and other child-related issues.

• Give testimony at public hearings in support of or in opposition to proposed education legislation.

• Vote in local, state, and federal elections for public officials who support education.

More ideas HERE and HERE. Please share other ideas by posting a comment below.

How do you know if your school is "family friendly" and why does it matter?

How family friendly is your school? How do you know?

Sometimes it's really easy to overlook things that may be unintended barriers to family engagement because seeing them day after day can make them invisible to you. One way to address this is to have a welcoming walk-through of the building. How will families and community members engage with school leaders and staff in the process?

Henderson, Mapp, Johnson, & Davies suggest that even before families enter the school building, they're looking for signs that they will be welcomed:

• friendly signs (in all major languages spoken by families at the school) point out the entrance and say that families and visitors are welcome;

• parking spots for parents and visitors are clearly marked and are near (or at least not very far from) the entrance;

• school staff and parents greet visitors in a friendly way and ask if they can help;

• teachers, administrators, and other school staff go outside the building to greet and talk with parents.

Once inside the building, how welcoming is it? What do you see? What impressions do you come away with? And, once you have identified barriers, what's the process for removing them?

Tentative Board Agenda Items for December

Board members received this list of tentative Agenda items for December back in September:

• Accountability Determinations (interested in this item, given the Board's support of Margaret McKenna's amendment at the November meeting)
• Competency Determination (now that there's a new hybrid test in the works)
• Submit Budget to Secretary of Education (probably other budgetary/fiscal announcements, including an update to the Board about the Foundation Budget Review Commission's final report)
• Safe & Supportive Schools report

December's Board meeting is planned for Tuesday, 12/15. Board members receive the Agenda and back-up for meeting items about 10 days before.

Charter School Public Hearings

Five charter school hearings have been scheduled within the first 10 days of December - all from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM:

• Springfield: Tuesday 12/1
• Springfield Public Library/Brightwood Branch, 359 Plainfield Street, Springfield

• Brockton: Thursday, 12/3
• Massasoit Community College/Conference Center, 770 Crescent Street, Brockton

• Sturbridge: Monday, 12/7
• Tantasqua High School Auditorium, 319 Brookfield Road, Fiskdale

• Lynn: Tuesday, 12/8
• Lynn City Hall/Council Chamber, 3 City Hall Square, 4th Floor, Lynn (rescheduled from 11/23 due to unforeseen circumstances at the Lynn City Hall)

• Fitchburg: Thursday, 12/10
• Fitchburg Public Library/Auditorium, 610 Main Street, Fitchburg

Please refer HERE for some of the information about the proposed Commonwealth Charter Schools.

Approval of new charter schools is scheduled for February (including discussion at the special meeting of the Board on Monday evening):

Monday, 2/22/16 - 5:00 PM (location TBD) - last year at DESE
Tuesday, 2/23/16 - 8:30 AM (location TBD) - last year at DESE

Public hearings provide an opportunity for feedback on the applications. At least one member of the BESE will attend each hearing and report back to the full Board on the testimony provided. Members of the public may also submit written comments about the final applications through January 6, 2016:

MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
c/o Charter School Office
75 Pleasant Street
Malden  MA  02148

or by eMail to: charterschools@doe.mass.edu

When writing or eMailing, please remember that the Secretary of State's Office has determined they are a public record.

Schools that Work

When we think of being involved parents* at school, what comes to mind? Is it to volunteer in the classroom? Fundraise for needed items? Attend a program, event, or meeting?

These are only part of what it means to be a modern, engaged parent today. Parents are working, juggling family, extra-curricular activities, and other commitments. Certainly, our students and schools win when parents are meaningfully involved in classrooms and schools. And, while it's true that an engaged parent may be a school volunteer:

• he may also be interested in learning how school events actually link to learning, so that he may better support learning at home;

• or, she may want to participate in decision-making opportunities in the school or in the district;

• or some may wish to advocate not only for their child and her classroom, but for all of the children in the school, city, or town, by speaking out on school-wide issues before local, state, and/or national elected representatives and policymakers.

Between government mandates, increasing class sizes, and shrinking budgets, public schools today are challenged to provide every child with opportunities to meet their educational needs.

Our communities, along with the Commonwealth, and the federal government as a critical third partner, have a shared responsibility for maintaining public schools and ensuring that all children have access to a high-quality public education.

The parent partnership extends beyond the school walls and includes our elected representatives at the local, state, and national levels. We must let them know how they can make a difference for our children by showing up to advocate for resources.

Across Massachusetts, schools lack resources for critical programs they need to close gaps and overcome barriers to learning that threaten the quality of education for every child - and leave our most vulnerable children behind.

To keep the promise of public education alive is to renew our partnership with policymakers and to promote a more fruitful collaboration on behalf of every child in every public school in every city and Town.

I'm dedicated to building family, community, and statewide partnerships that work for our schools and children.

Yes - family engagement is about partnering with our child's teacher and school -- and, yes, it's also about packing healthy lunches for them, monitoring their screen time, and talking with them about their goals and passions.

But, that's not the whole picture.

We all need to work together - beyond the classroom and school - to help our schools obtain the resources they need to fulfill the promise that public education holds for every child.

Advocacy is like an ever-flowing river - one that you may step into at any place, at any time. And whether you choose to dip your toe in at the edge of the shore, or wade all the way into the deep - your presence has changed the course.

Now is the time. We must partner together because these are our children, our schools, our future and they deserve no less.
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* Throughout this post, "parent" refers to any adult who serves a care-giving role in a child's life.

Parents as Partners in Shared School Decision Making

I truly believe that when parents are fully respected and engaged as partners with schools, schools do better. When our youngest was in elementary school I served on the school's Site Council for two years (2006-2008), elected through a representative process. Site councils give parents the opportunity to shape school policy by giving them an equal voice in school decision making, along with teachers, principals, and community partners. Serving on the Site Council was an engaging, pragmatic way to partner with the school in students' academic and social-emotional life.

Our Site Council was comprised of four parents whose children attended the school; each parent served overlapping terms of two years each, with two parents elected each year. Three school staff members were elected by staff. Then, one parent was nominated by members of the council to serve as Co-Chair; the principal served as the other Co-Chair and also appointed one member from the community at large.

We met monthly in a conference room at the school, before the start of the school day, and for about an hour. The issues we took up had an impact on the annual school improvement plan:

• the impact of class size on student performance;

• school safety and discipline;

• the school handbook;

• family engagement;

• enhancing the school grounds, and more.

HERE's what's on the DESE website about Site Councils. Among other things, the Massachusetts Education Reform law requires School Site Councils to:

• adopt educational goals for the school;

• review the annual school building budget;

• develop a school improvement plan which must correspond to the district improvement plan.

The relationship between School Committees and school Site Councils provides for a unique opportunity to improve and strengthen community engagement within public education governance. The law provides an oversight role for School Committees and further states that elected School Committees at the district level may grant additional authority to School Councils in the area of educational policy. During my years on the Lexington School Committee, and in partnership with MASC, we met with representatives from the Town's 9 School Site Councils twice a year to strengthen their awareness of their roles and responsibilities.

The most important work of the school Site Council is the development of the School Improvement Plan (SIP). In this work the entire school community develops goals and plans strategies to address identified needs. Parents can have an important impact in this process by making sure that issues important to them and their children are addressed. These might include:

• establish a welcoming school environment;

• training to help school staff work effectively with families;

• class size, its impact on student learning, and a plan to reduce class size;

• design and implement parent/family engagement activities;

• meeting the learning needs of diverse students, including students with disabilities and students who are English language learners.

Once developed (annually), a Site Council submits their SIP to the School Committee.

I learned a lot about our school during my time on the Site Council. I found it an informative and empowering way to take part in a collaborative process that had a positive impact on the students and school culture. The experience led to my running for Town Meeting, then the School Committee, where I ultimately advocated for all of the Town's public school children. 

If you're still with me here, having read this far, and it sounds even a tiny bit interesting, I encourage you to look into the process for serving on a local Site Council.

Some reflections on the Board's vote for a new statewide test

I don’t know about you, but I’m a little burned out on arguments about statewide assessments. I accept that we need them, but we’re spending way too much time on them just because students from other countries are "out-performing" students in the US on standardized tests.

It bothers me that we've been angsting over these assessments for so long when there are many other areas in need of our attention and dollars. Plus, I’m more interested in the larger educational context that is our vision and our plan for learners. (I'm not going to call it "21st c learning" because, 2015...!)

Across the discussion of “how to do tests in Massachusetts", I’ve observed a tension between what, on the one hand, is essential for child/student well-being and learning and what, on the other hand, strikes us as essential for the future economy. I will argue that until and unless we are dedicated and accountable to child/student well-being, teaching and learning may have little relevance for many children, thus we contribute to a problem we're trying to solve while putting students at risk of being unprepared - not only for their role in the future economy, but for their lives. Education is more than a talent pipeline for employers, after all, it's an end in itself.*

Beleaguered by the political morass, teachers and learners are losing ground. The teacher/learner relationship is the most essential and everything Principals, District Leaders, School Committees - and State Boards of Education - do must be to support that primal relationship in the learning environment, and build capacity for that relationship to thrive for effective teaching and learning. 

We're seeing how education must be personalized for each student no matter who they are, where they live, what language they speak, or how they present. The skills and dispositions they must possess require a multi-dimensional approach of the kind not undertaken before in K-12 education. A lift of this magnitude requires resources in the form of educational and economic investment from federal, state, and local partners in government, as well as deep and sustained alignment with all components of our educational eco-system, including true partnership with families and communities.

To be truly effective (and more than a blunt instrument of accountability), assessment might be part of a wholly supported, integrated system that's realigned with structures not only for technology and education, but also organizational development and capacity, school climate and culture, budgets, and School Committee policies. Why place the standardized assessment ahead of our needs for high quality professional development, student-family-community engagement, social-emotional learning, and teaching and learning? How can we move forward with an assessment system that's not critically aligned with these in partnership with local districts?

We’re already working from a technology deficit because we lack effective technology in every classroom, in every school, in every district across the Commonwealth. Where that technology isn't present or aligned as part of a strategic framework for educational transformation, it hasn't been identified as a priority and/or committing scarce dollars is a reality. Some business and education leaders suggest that getting online assessments in place first will, therefore, leverage meeting our compelling technological needs.

This thinking isn't correct.

Technology is a part of realizing our vision for learning and student success, not apart from it. Partnering with districts to move toward digital learning environments is more than having the requisite test-taking technology. We're absent a grounding vision that not only supports the learning eco-system, but sustains it with time for learning, teaching, collaboration, and reflection.

Fewer than 25% of people living in communities are families with children in schools. Education, progressive in that it's always moving into the future, should be a source of pride in all communities. These are our schools, our children, our future and we all need a voice in shaping them.

The mission of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is to strengthen the Commonwealth's public education system so that every student is prepared to succeed in post-secondary education, compete in the global economy, and understand the rights and responsibilities of American citizens, and in so doing, to close all proficiency gaps.

How will the Board achieve its stated mission? How do we set up the right conditions for all learners and educators? It's not with a standardized test. Standardized tests have not driven us to higher achievement. They've driven us to higher test scores, but not to higher achievement.

And therein lies the rub.

Many children do very well by these tests, and will continue to do well with the new test, especially if they're white and from affluent families, but not all children and schools are well served by them. Poor children do much less well.

The decision the Board has made is tiny compared to its mission and to the other important things I've mentioned.

I agreed with 6 of my Board colleagues who voted (7-4) to support a two year "hold harmless" provision for districts while a new test is developed, but I prefer that we go further.**

Whether we're in a knowledge economy, an innovation economy, or a purpose-driven economy, learning is life-long. There's a lot to be done to prepare our students for life and the future, including knowing exactly what part assessments are to play to inform instruction and improve learning with their timely data and feedback to skilled, knowledgeable professionals with the people, financial, and technological resources to identify learning gaps, modify curriculum, and adjust instruction for whole child and student success.

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Notes, Quotes, Posts, tweets
* A reference to John Dewey's 1893 essay, "Self-Realization as the Moral Ideal". (The Philosophical Review, Vol. 2, No.6 (Nov., 1893), pp.652-664; Published by: Duke University Press on behalf of Philosophical Review; DOI: 102307/2176020; Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2176020). The embedded link in the above post should lead directly to page 660 of the journal - which provides the context for the oft quoted, "Education is not preparation for life but life itself."

** I support bill H.340 of Rep. Marjorie Decker's calling for a 3-year moratorium on the high-stakes punitive nature of testing in Massachusetts.

If you pass a test, didn't you learn something?

Sustaining Improvements in Urban Schools

You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.
~ Toni Morrison, from Song of Solomon

So much of our work depends on taking time away from students to be the best teachers possible.
~ The JLV

Is Education broken? - @stevewheeler interviews @AudreyWatters http://t.co/y5xHc2NyZv

— Edumorfosis (@edumorfosis) October 15, 2015

All Eyes on Door #3

We have the commissioner's recommendation on student assessment. We have results from last spring's PARCC test administrations. Now, the Board must balance all of the testimony it has heard and read - and call the question.

But, how might standardized assessments for K-12 be designed to aid learning? What if, instead of keeping with the same high-stakes testing regime that has always been done, we took a different approach (as NH and CA have done) in the design and administration of something that unlocks deeper learning opportunities for students?

NASBE Update to the BESE

As the MA delegate to NASBE's annual conference last month, Chair Sagan has asked me to provide an update to the Board at today's regular Board meeting. I've blogged about some of the sessions I attended during the conference, beginning with the visit to the Halstead Academy; links to those posts may be found in the sidebar at right (they're near the bottom of the page, in "October", and all have "NASBE" in the title; some are embedded links below). At today's meeting I'll be sharing, more or less, from here:

Overall, NASBE put on an impressive conference. Excellent presenters and featured speakers led high quality sessions on key issues before us, including:

• Re-thinking the achievement gap
• ESEA reauthorization
• Student data privacy
• Changing demographics and their impact on education and the workforce
• Teacher equity plans (what's next, now that they've been filed)
• Social-emotional learning
• Engaging students in deeper learning
• Strengthening state policies for high-quality early childhood education
• Focusing on career and civic competencies (not only on college competencies)

As is common at such conferences, there were many networking opportunities with partners and colleagues in member states, as well as an awards luncheon to recognize outstanding contributions of education and elected leaders.

Business of the conference included the election of a new executive committee and board members, updating of the association's bylaws, and votes on new association positions. I was honored to be elected by colleagues in the Northeast member states to NASBE's Board of Directors as the Northeast Area Director. The term is for two years beginning January 1, 2016. The Northeast Area includes the six New England states, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. It will be my role to liaise to these states, participate in monthly conference calls, and attend Board meetings in Alexandria, VA four times a year.

Some take-aways from the conference:

• DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE: Change is coming to schools and the workforce. From the 2000 to 2010 Census:
• Hispanic population grew by 43%
• Asian-American population grew by 42.9%
• White population grew by 1.2%
• an aging population is retiring and living longer

States need to be actively thinking about and planning for these changes.

• ALL MEANS ALL: The society of children about to enter the education system will be very different, including:
• very many more children who will not have English as a first/primary language --> it's impact on reading for all children
• many children being raised by grandparents and in other non-traditional family configurations, which has an impact on the history that gets taught (i.e., Rethinking Columbus and History UnErased)
• more importance to be placed on cultural competency and non-cognitive learning

Education is important but insufficient; also need to include non-cognitive aspects.

• TECHNOLOGY: How, where, and when students learn is changing much more dramatically. Technology is changing faster than states can decide what to do.

State Boards of Education (SBEs) can provide guardrails.

• FEDERAL LEGISLATION: Issues around student data privacy are challenging because they are trying to fit into a law from 1974 (FERPA). ESEA is critical and is 14 years out of date. 

Current compromise legislation doesn't do everything we all might want, but it's important so that all of our diverse students can achieve at high levels.

• NAVIGATING CHANGE: The work of SBEs is going to get a lot harder. NASBE has our back with policy experts, excellent publications, resources.

Announced NASBE Dates:

2016 Legislative Conference: April 4-5, at the Liaison Capitol Hill Hotel, Washington DC to which I hope BESE members will consider joining me in attending.

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"Too many tests? Obama's plan treats symptoms, not the cause." Smart take from @latimes on proposed 2% testing cap: https://t.co/i3wJPICG9j

— NASBE (@NASBE) October 28, 2015

What's Behind Door #3? [PARCC::Part II]

We've been reading (for example, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE, among other places, like HERE, HERE, and HERE) that a recommendation is pending from Commissioner Chester to the Board of ESE about how to move forward with statewide assessments in ELA and maths. He's been floating around his idea for a third way since October 19th's Board meeting, sharing his change of view and describing his process for how he will inform the Board of his recommendation. We assume said recommendation will be similar to what we've been reading and hearing about. Time will tell.

At October's meetings, the Board learned that tech upgrades to infrastructure were estimated to be $3.1 million; another $12.3 million estimated for additional technology in schools. Many schools may be ready for computer-based testing but very many more are not at all equipped with equitable, effective digital learning environments.

Acknowledging our tech deficit across the Commonwealth in this regard, I'm concerned that technology for learning is being driven with an eye to test-taking instead of blending future focused, student-centered, content-rich interactive curricula. What's the plan to align and effectively integrate those environments, while ensuring great teaching and learning?

• How are we supporting practitioner-led professional development that's framework-aligned and tech-integrated? 

• Are all educators in regular and frequent conversations with the rest of the team? Is the instructional technology team part of grade-, course- and/or department-level PLCs?

• How are school staff collaborating with families and community partners to connect students and families to expanded learning opportunities and community services in order to support achievement and civic participation? 

• Is the organization developed sufficiently with integrated tools and resources, including non-cognitive supports for all learners, no matter the language he speaks or where she lives?

• Do educators have what they need when they need it to support all students, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds?

To live in a media-rich, technology-driven environment, the entire educational enterprise must have command of the essential skills of collaboration, communication, problem-solving, critical thinking, and reflection through the integration and effective use of technology.

The point is this: no test ensures great teaching and learning. Teachers in the learning environment are the true catalysts for change. A more effective statewide assessment system in 2015 might be focused on seamless integration with its complementary parts, not on the sturm und drang over the standardized assessment tool.

Educators are skilled professionals - practitioners working to inform their practice so they can nimbly respond to a learner's needs, modify curriculum, and improve instruction. The urgency isn't about getting everyone in a 1:1 relationship with a device for test-taking. It's about remaining focused on great teaching and learning for our digital age, providing opportunities and time for reflection and collaboration, aligned with a vision that holds student-learning at the center of all decisions.

- - -
Resources, quotes, tweets
See HERE, HERE, and HERE for the Department's vision and support for digital learning in MA K-12 schools.

Great read on the Obama administration's changing views on standardized testing.

Those bills in the Massachusetts Legislature calling for a moratorium on testing and on other accountability measures.

Read and heard elsewhere: recent references to "door number three thinking":

• An article about the Lawrence receivership that ran in CommonWealth Magazine on October 12, 2015

• The Secret History of Thoughts - Dark Thoughts that aired on The Invisibilia Podcast on January 9, 2015, rebroadcast on WGBH-FM, November 2, 2015, which is when I heard it

PARCC::Part I

Note: The Board will hold a final public comment session on PARCC -->Door #3 (?) Monday, November 16, 4:00-7:00 PM at Malden High School auditorium (in lieu of Public Comments at Tuesday morning's regular BESE meeting, 8:30 AM).

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
~ Albert Einstein

A great obstacle to discovery is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge.
~ Daniel Boorstin

Our best measures of educational performance are cognitive because that's what's easiest to test. If the things that are harder to test matter more, that presents something of a conundrum for people trying to formulate educational policy.
~ Megan McArdle in Bloomberg View (Note that Ms. McArdle's article describes key takeaways of an experiment in parent engagement undertaken by Roland Fryer, Stephen Levitt, and John List; Roland Fryer is now a member of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education).

Great ed leaders inspire others with vision and hope not pressure and fear.

— Pedro Noguera (@PedroANoguera) September 1, 2015

American schools are modeled after factories and treat students like widgets. Right? Wrong. http://t.co/A1FyhOL6Yl

— Jack Schneider (@Edu_Historian) October 10, 2015

NASBE Session :: What Do We Now Know About Preparing School Leaders - and How are We Doing?

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Panel Presenters
Paul Manna, College of William & Mary, Wallace Foundation
Jonathan Supovitz and Bobbi Newman, Consortium for Policy Research in Education, University of Pennsylvania
William "Bill" White, Chair of School Leader Study Group, West Virginia State Board of Education


NASBE: State BOD chose two study groups: one on career readiness & the other took a look at the adequate number of school leaders - - lead to this report, partially funded by Wallace Foundation. At the same time that the study group was working on this, Paul Manna published his report for the Wallace Foundation: Developing Excellent School Principals to Advance Teaching and Learning


Paul Manna

• A Tale of Two Reports: The Wallace Foundation's Developing Excellent School Principals to Advance Teaching and Learning: Considerations for State Policy AND NASBE's: Successful Leaders for Successful Schools: Building and Maintaining a Quality Workforce

• The need for high-quality leaders -->not high priority on state policy agenda - currently, more attention to teacher-related issues than principal-related

• A focus on "school leadership" conflates the principal's role with the roles of other school leaders

State Policy Levers Examined:
- Setting principal standards;
- Recruiting aspiring principals;
- Overseeing principal preparation programs;
- Licensing principals; supporting professional development of principals; evaluating principals

• ON Recruitment: Wallace FDN has a big focus on Urban Emphasis --> have to also talk about rural settings

Examples:

• North Carolina: NELA (Northeast Leadership Academy), mission to recruit, train, then place in rural locations in North Carolina. There are some common needs in both rural and urban; explicit training for rurals, like how to find resources for their particular settings; recruits also learn to write a grant

• Illinois and Kentucky: they have had principal preparation programs for over 10 years

• Massachusetts: on Licensing, Performance Assessment for Leaders ("PALS") - -> emphasis is on practice; with a focus on training

Local Contexts
- Educational governance
- Diversity of locales
- Capacity of state agencies and local districts and schools to implement policy
- Policies and practices

"... perhaps a principal's job is to go to work and decide which law to break because there are so many conflicting rules and policies..."

State boards of ed have The Power of Collective Voice to affect change:

1. The Power of Policy - authority to officially adopt and enact rules and regs to govern an area of the education system (often referred to as "rule-making")
2. The Power of the Question - as a body, has authority to ask agencies individuals, or organizations for information updates, and assistance on nay matter regarding the education system
3. The Power to Convene - for the purpose of discussing issues and collaboratively working toward solutions involving the education system in areas were the Board retains policy authority, as well as where it does not

With this in mind, SBEs could do some kind of systematic audit that bear on the Principals' job every day - - with an eye to removing 4 or 5 things...!


Dr. Jonathan Supovitz & Dr. Bobbi Newman

• How do we look holistically at the system of support for capacity for school leaders?

• Framework: Leadership Standards - Individual Supports

• Data: used for monitoring and informing continuous improvement (Distributed model for review of data - -Organizational Supports and Individual Supports)

• Hoping the study group report will help you

Organizational Supports
In the course of contacting all 50 states about their programs, spoke to lots of SEA folks

Program Approval & Licensure --> go hand in glove
Licensure:
- requirements for leaders
- leadership exam

Partnerships:
- partnerships provide the conduit through which candidates can better access these pathways
- findings

Sponsorships
Financial support for:
- recruitment programs
- induction programs
- mentoring
- recognition

Emerging TRENDS:

• IL: sunsetting programs and asking folks to reapply

• AZ & MA: high standards for leaders

• DE: new report cards focus on a cycle of continuous improvement

• many states have "grow your own" programs for leadership

• developing "teacher leaders": many states have the requirement that prospective principals have teaching experience, but no evidence of leadership is required - - this needs to change

Going forward: guiding questions for policymakers (begins on p. 22 of the NASBE report)


Bill White

• in addition to the guiding questions, check out  REFERENCES, beginning on p. 28

• need to look at the way we do leadership development, beginning on p. 17

The take-away: There are bright spots, but no exemplary states

There's more in the Storify
- - -
Note:
There's an excellent twitterchat for aspiring administrators called #Admin2B. Drop in Monday nights, 8:00-9:00 PM (EST). Check out archived convos HERE and HERE

NASBE Luncheon Keynote :: Brilliant - The Science of How We Get Smarter

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Annie Murphy Paul, Author of the forthcoming book Brilliant: The Science of How We Get Smarter
on twitter @anniemurphypaul

• engaging presentation, posits intelligence can be acquired 

• findings suggest that our schools can impart not just knowledge and skills but intelligence itself to students

• thinks of intelligence as a "reservoir and a pipeline"

• says we don't know how to measure the depth or capacity of someone's intelligence reservoir

• we're focusing too much on increasing the capacity of the reservoir instead of the pipeline

• intelligence is sensitive to its "setting", so pay attention to the environment

• instead of talking about the "achievement gap" > > understand "cognitively congenial settings"

• the ability to shape one's own setting, in the way that works best for learning > > a key 21st c skill

• companies can also enhance the brainpower of the workers they already employ when they focus on the setting

There's more in the Storify

NASBE Session :: Career Readiness for All Students

The Second C: Paving the Path of Career Readiness for All Students
Thursday, October 22, 2015

Panel Presenters
James Hull, Center for Public Education, National School Boards Association (NSBA)

Andrea Zimmerman, National Association of State Director of Career Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEc)

Malbert Smith III, Ph.D., President & Co-founder, MetaMetrics

Bill Mathis, Ph.D. Managing Director, National Education Policy Center at University of Colorado, Boulder, Member of Vermont State Board of Education

Mireya Reith, Chair of NASBE Career Study Group, Vice Chair and Member of Arkansas State Board of Education

Robert Hull, Moderator, Director of Center for College Career, and Civic Readiness ("the first c, the second c, and the other c"), NASBE

Robert Hull: NASBE Board of Directors chooses one or 2 topics to take a deep dive into for the year - come back and share - - research. Report of the NASBE Career Study Group is the result of the work on "career readiness".


Jim Hull (no relation ^): Center for Public Education (cpe) also wrote a report on this topic: The Path Least Taken II

• Lots of focus on kids going on to college

• Not very much focus on the impact of high school on career readiness

• There are many reasons kids don't go on to college

• Non-college students took less rigorous courses in high school (though they took two or more vocational courses); other "credentials" that matter most for non-college goers:
• completed Algebra 2 as their highest math course; advanced biology as highest science
• cumulative GPS between 2.51 and 3.0
• completed an occupations concentration in high school (three or more vocational courses in a specific labor market area)
• earned a professional certification or license

Malbert Smith

• MetaMetrics using lexile scores as a reading framework to ask: 
• How well do you have to read to become an auto mechanic?
• How do you measure career readiness?
• What benchmark shows success?

• Google "CCR" = college & career readiness

• many states tracking students longitudinally

• North Carolina ahead of many states in this regard

• DIBELS Next* - Common Scale across multiple assessments, reporting out lexile measures on https://lexile.com/

• the ELA standards: 5 critical shifts from earlier standards:
• 1) text complexity
• 2) analysis, inference and evidence
• 3) writing to sources
• 4) mastery of writing

• Lexile levels and maths - necessary for very many careers, whether attorneys or auto-mechanics

• This is where you need to be for active citizenship

• All about competency

• Importance of connecting career to competency (not just college...)

Andrea Zimmerman

• How we can move to an innovative, HQ system?

• Rigorous skills

• Future of CTE Summit October 6-8, Orlando FL

• What is a common, HQ CTE system supposed to look like?

• Need to prioritize action steps (^)

• SBEs have a clear and critical role for CTE

• Two reports: focus on intersection of college and career in partnership with Achieve:
• Competency work
• Career accountability systems (Measuring Career Readiness @CTE)

• Review ESEA waivers, state report cards, how they're being publicly reported, major trends

• CCR framework is focused on the first c = college; need to instill career indicators, multiple measures Perkins data,cte/ccr leaders, as well as workforce and economic dev leaders; find the appropriate balance of uses across public reporting and accountability
• Lingering Challenges are systemic

• Incorporating CTE early and often - embedded in strategy at all levels, break down silos

• Need to attend to equity: validation of multiple pathways

Bill Mathis

• He attended a vocational education program, has sat on a voc ed board, and taught about it in college

• CTE program taught him a lot about...vacuum tubes > > learned transferable skills

• Today, kids need to learn basic knowledge, flexibility, continuous learning, cooperation, problem solving, etc, but that not exactly what kids are getting in school

• Offered an Overview of Vermont's CCR program - task force led to Flexible Pathways Act 77, in order to graduate:
• any HQ program can count
• blended and virtual
• must demonstrate proficiency
• must have a personalized learning plan by 2019
• career ed must begin in 7th grade

• National and global need

• Cites the Economic Progress promises of President Obama, Arne Duncan [links mine]

• the more highly educated the person, the more bucks they can make

• this is the root of the American dream - but we live in a post manufacturing economy

• need for fair incomes and equality

• check out the World Economic Forum's 12 Pillars

• Implications of 2012-2022 - Labor Force Projections

• Health Care, construction, and social assistance are all impacted

• Says: STEM! I'm tired of STEM!!
• only 5% of all jobs are STEM
• no need to keep pushing STEM - it's an overcrowded field
• implications for state boards

Mireya Reith

• SBEs need to understand the framework in which we're working

• Quickly realize that we're working in silos

• Who gets the CTE money in states?

• How is money spent in states?

• Arkansas CTE housed in Career Education (separate board, separate dept)

• These structures matter...!

• Can't talk about CTE as K-12...goes back to birth...could we talk about it as Birth-20?

• Visit your CTE programs!

• Kitchens in a classroom!

• classrooms integrated with other places

• Feels like a different type of learning

• Visit factories...learning that needs to happen...

• Some states have definitions...[MA?]

• What are the implications?

The take-aways:
College readiness is all about Competency
Career readiness is Overlooked (need for competency here, too)
Civics is Forgotten or Silent

Important to engage minorities - so often overlooked and the need to address preconceptions

There's more in the Storify

NASBE Breakfast Keynote :: Disruptive Demographics :: Thursday, October 22, 2015

Keynote Speaker: Dr. James H. Johnson Jr., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Asks: How do we properly educate needs of diverse students?

Unprecedented, disruptive demographics around us present incredible challenges and opportunities

Finds 6 disruptive themes from 2010 census:

1. The South Rises...Again
2. The Browning of America
3. Marrying Out is "In"
4. The Silver Tsunami is About to Hit
5. The End of Men
6. Cooling Water from Grandma's Well...and Grandpa's too!

The South Continues to Rise...Again...

• we are a mobile society
• our migration trends are immigration driven
• movement is happening in 4 states in the South: 71% of 14M people going to Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina

The Browning of America

• immigration driven
• 1921-1961 most people migrating came from Europe
• 1961-1988 most people migrating came from Asia
• 1987-1998 migration from Europe fundamentally disappears
• migration and immigration are age-selected
• more young people are coming to US - having children at higher rates and "completed fertility" of white women is between 40-44 year-olds means school systems are impacted by this fundamental biology

The Graying of America

• at the same time the Browning of America is going on, the graying of native born is on the rise - the silver Tsunami is about to hit...
• also, changes in longevity - HUGE
• AND declining fertility
• longevity due to  better lifestyles (healthy eating, more active lives)
• multi-generational workforce
• succession planning and accommodations for elder care - organizational game changers!

Marrying Out is "In"

• profound shift in marriage patterns
• intermarriage trends on the rise
• no one-size fits all - kids coming in will not fit (and will not let you make them fit...!)
• children living in grandparent and non-grandparent households on the rise
• family arrangements have changed
• much more diversity
• women are about to surpass men as majority in workforce

All of this has a huge impact on the history we will tell and how we will tell it. Education is necessary but insufficient.

Q&A
Q: Very compelling presentation; great portrait of demographic shifts in US - to what extent do these impact globally?
A: Only region of the world not experiencing these trends is sub-Saharan Africa; a global phenom

Q: School to prison pipeline: what can we do to reduce it?
A: Rebuild a better, robust system of public schools that offer protection, affection, correction, connection. Engage our boys in a different way. Better preparation for new generation of teachers. More training in youth development.

There's more in the Storify
- - -
Notes:
More about Dr. James H. Johnson, Jr

The End of Men

2010 US Census Data

NASBE15 Pre-Conference :: Student Data Privacy :: Wednesday, October 21, 2015 :: 1:00 PM*

Pre-test: Can you identify what the following acronyms stand for?

• SOPIPA

• PII

• SBEs

• FERPA

• COPPA

• PI

• PPRA

• SEAs

• PTAC

Presenters

State Law and Policy Trends:
Rachel Anderson, Senior Associate, Policy and Advocacy, Data Quality Campaign

Amelia Vance, Director of Education Data & Technology, NASBE

Common Pitfalls of Contracting with Education Technology Providers:
Michael Hawes, Statistical Privacy Advisor, US Department of Education

Security 101:
Jim Siegl, Technology Architect, Fairfax County Public Schools

Overcoming Policy Hurdles to Help Kids Succeed:
Elizabeth Laird, Lousiana Deartment of Education

Federal Data Privacy Legislation Panel:
Reg Leichty, Moderator, Founding Partner, Foresight Law + Policy
Jon Bernstein, President, Bernstein Strategy Group
Paige Kowalski, Vice-President of Policy and Advocacy, Data Quality Campaign
Kobie Pruitt, Education Policy Manager, The Future of Privacy Forum
Mark Schneiderman, Vice President for Government Affairs, School Messenger
Elana Zeide, Privacy Research Fellow, NYU Information Law Institute

State Boards of Education (SBEs) have some authority over education data privacy (Here's what's posted on MA/DESE website - remind me to follow up on any further BESE authority).

School as we know it is changing:

• Technology and information needs are evolving faster than policies.

• There's a lack of communication with parents and the public about the value of educational data.

• Talking about privacy can be challenging.

• How do we address the personal nature of privacy?

Since September 2015, 187 Bills on student data privacy have been introduced in 47 states; legislative themes include:

Thirty-three states have passed student data privacy laws since 2013. Laws prior to 2014 gave State Education Agencies (SEAs) and SBEs^ authority to:

• Rule-making

• Override authority

• Adopt & implement privacy policies

• Provide a public data inventory

• Appoint Chief Privacy Officer

• Review potential new data elements to be collected/linked/shared

• Ensure role based access to data

• Notify parents of rights

• Create a data security review team

• Provide oversight of vendor contracts

[^ Again - noted for follow-up with DESE]

Rachel Anderson:

• One thing Congress doesn't do is work from scratch

• Congress is attempting to use/update FERPA for student data privacy issues - - it's complex because the law was written in 1974 and it has a hard time fitting into today's educational context:

• 1974 student "educational records" could be locked in filing cabinet with a key...that's out of touch with 2015

• There's no "educational record" now, there is "student data"

Jim Siegl:

• There's a trade-off between what's useful and convenient for teachers in the classroom and a rigid system for "protection"

• Biggest risks to security are the mistakes made by people with access to data in systems every day (as opposed to "data breaches")

• How is your district handling educator training of day-to-day data?

• Ongoing staff training is a must - anyone handling student data should be trained in

• how to use data, and
• how to protect data

Elizabeth Laird:

• Welcome to Privacy-pa-looza!
• Louisiana schools struggle with strict privacy law
• Louisiana is the only state with criminal penalties
• Time for a longitudinal data system
• Lousiana's plan to protect student privacy

Take-aways on student data privacy:

• SBEs have been collecting student/school data for 100 years

• Technology and data can sound abstract
• the philosophy of "protection of data" at the intersection of "education" makes it a challenging issue

• Need to consider state and federal interaction
• How to consider investing scarce public resources to student data privacy?

• What is the appropriate federal role?
• The "role of consent" in some of the federal bills is an "over-correction" > > > must strike a balance between "privacy" and data's "value"

• The potential for over-reach; must consider the role of technology in education and the consequence of passing draconian legislation, lest it become too burdensome for educators

• Still...laws are not enough - we need leadership from the education community to build trust and best practices.

Suggested foundational elements of a state data privacy and security policy to include:

• Statement of the policy/law's purposes - - To include talking about both the VALUE of educational data and the importance of PROTECTING that data)

• Select the person/s in charge - - Who will answer people's questions? Who creates policy and guidance? Who enforces the state's laws?

• Transparency plan - - In the absence of being transparent...anything that can be said will be said...SBEs haven't been good at communicating the VALUE of educational data and the importance of PROTECTING that data. It can (and should) be simple.
• Explain the "who, what, where, why, and when" of data collection.
• Make the data easy to find and understand.
• Give details for those who want to read them.

• Limiting vendor use of data - - Limit data use for non-educational purposes. Check contract provisions for data use and storage. Define who has signing authority on contracts. Beware of "click-wrap" agreements.

• Statewide data privacy & security plan - - Have a comprehensive plan to address privacy, and also address administrative, physical, and technical safeguards. Ongoing staff training and methods of encryption.

• Ongoing staff training - - Anyone who handles student data should be trained in: How to use data and how to protect data

Pre-test answers:

• SOPIPA: Student Online Personal Information Protection Act. A California law, the first state law to comprehensively address student privacy. Effective January 1, 2016

• PII: Personally Identifiable Information

• SBEs: State Boards of Education

• FERPA: Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (of 1974!) A federal law designed to protect the privacy of student "educational records". Established the rights of students to inspect and review their educational records.

• COPPA: Children's Online Privacy Protection Act - a federal law designed to protect the privacy of children under the age of 13

• PI: Personal Information

• PPRA: Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment. A federal law that affords certain rights to parents of minor students with regard to surveys that ask questions of a personal nature.

• SEAs: State Education Agencies

• PTAC: Privacy Technical Assistance Center - provides guidance and best practices.

* I found the presentations and panel discussion to be an excellent complement to the morning visit to Halstead Academy.

NASBE :: Data Privacy Resources

There's more in the Storify

- - -

Materials from the Session available online:

NASBE :: Comparison of 2015 Federal Education Data Privacy Bills

Why Does Student Data Matter?

10 Things We Would Lose Without Data

Student Data Principles

10 Steps Every District Should Take Today

Parsing Student Privacy: Creating a Parent-Focused Framework for Conversation

Is Student Privacy Erased as Classrooms Turn Digital?

Parental Support for Technology and Data Use in Schools

A Parents' Guide to Student Data Privacy

Student Privacy Pledge (with statements from NSBA, CCSSO, Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), National PTA, more)